Freddy and Fredericka Audiobook By Mark Helprin cover art

Freddy and Fredericka

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Freddy and Fredericka

By: Mark Helprin
Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
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Best-selling, critically acclaimed author Mark Helprin's work has drawn favorable comparisons to an elite group of literary legends, including James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, and Thomas Mann. Helprin's sheer comic brilliance shines in this ingenious farce.

Freddy is the bright but aloof Prince of Wales. Fredericka is his blonde, beautiful, and beloved wife. When they stumble into a public relations nightmare with no easy solution, they must make amends by serving an unusual penance. Literally dropped from a plane into a mysterious place called Hoboken, New Jersey, Freddy and Fredericka are given one task. They must reconquer America!

A thinly veiled satire of what might have happened if Princess Diana had survived, Freddy and Fredericka is an imaginative gem full of clever wordplay and wicked political jabs.

©2005 Mark Helprin (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC Contemporary Family Life Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Paranormal & Urban Satire Women's Fiction Comedy Witty Royalty Feel-Good Funny Heartfelt
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Critic reviews

"Helprin's entertaining new novel [is] a rollicking picaresque saga that reads as though Evelyn Waugh had put the movies Roman Holiday and Duck Soup into a blender along with some old copies of People magazine and a couple of Mark Twain's travelogues, and seasoned the resulting confection with generous helpings of his own black comedy....Mr. Helprin has constructed a perfect showcase for his heretofore underused gift of humor, and in doing so he has produced a delightful romp of a book." (The New York Times)
"Irresistibly mischievous." (Booklist)
"Wildly imaginative, adventure-filled, clever." (Publishers Weekly)
"[Mark Helprin] frequently astounds with the freshness of voice and the oddly soaring majesty of this...comic call for greatness in a mediocre era." (Kirkus Reviews)

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I’m not particularly intrigued by British royalty. I don’t know much about the lineages or the difference between a duke and an earl (should those be capitalized??) But I do know I loved this book. I really loved it. True, I love pretty much all of Mark Helprin’s books, but I sort of thought I wouldn’t be too crazy about this one for some reason. I actually even tried reading it once, but it slid to the middle of the bedside book pile before I’d made it to page 50. I picked it up again after a friend scolded me and was ashamed to have put it down the first time. I can’t remember exactly why, but I did have to struggle just a bit to get past the first section. I think the characters can be so comical that it took some time for them to be something more than just cartoons. Freddy’s serious moments, so wonderful and profound, are made even more so juxtaposed against his absurdity. Their trip through America, and the changes and growth and awakenings and adventures, is not to be missed.

great great great

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The narrator, Robert Ian Mackenzie, made a wonderful book fabulous! The story of Freddy and Fredericka is funny - so much so that I continually laughed out loud during many sections. Mackenzie made funny scenes even funnier. I HIGHLY recommend this book. One caution, there are a number of curse words - so if you are offended by F***, S***, and more - skip this book.

Fabulously Funny!

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After listening to the first forty-five minutes, I thought it was just going to be subtle, boring, and looong. I gave it a bit more of a chance though, and am so glad that I did! I love the narrator and definitely think that he brings out the many nuances of the story. Albeit a bit of a fluff ending, but the body of the story switches between hilarious dialogue and nice descriptions of the surroundings and background story. All in all a great buy.

Freddy and Fredericka

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my husband and I absolutely loved this book it was a joy to listen to!

wanting more...

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If you have read Mark Helprin before, you know what to expect: flights of fantasy inhabiting and enlightening the everyday world, flashes of humor, and, now and again, startling luminous prose of a beauty to rival Shakespeare or Thomas Wolfe. I enjoyed Freddy and Frederika, but it is not Helprin's best. The plot is weak -- it is more a series of amusing incidents than one coherent story. Much of the humor is in the form of "Who's on first" dialogs, but because of the hybrid format (a work originally written and now being read) these don't work as well as they ought. Too much was explained, diluting the laughs. And the narrator was not great -- it is particularly irritating that everyone has an English accent, even though most of the story takes place in the USA.

Still, sub-par Helprin is head and shoulders above the best that most authors produce.

good, but not perfect

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